Hiram Wesley Evans (1881–1966) was
Imperial Wizard of the
Ku Klux Klan, an American
white supremacist group, from 1922 to 1939. Evans, a dentist, joined the Klan's
Dallas chapter in 1920. He quickly rose through the ranks and, after ousting
William J. Simmons as Imperial Wizard, sought to transform the group into a political juggernaut. Although Evans had led the kidnapping and torture of a black man while leader of the Dallas Klan, as Imperial Wizard he publicly discouraged vigilante actions. He also led major gatherings and marches, endorsed several successful candidates in state elections, and promoted the Klan as a
nativist,
Protestant group. Despite these efforts, the Klan was buffeted by damaging publicity in the early 1920s, and the
Great Depression of the 1930s severely damaged the Klan's finances and Evans' own income. In 1939 Evans, having lost favor within the Klan for disavowing
anti-Catholicism, was succeeded by
James A. Colescott; the following year he was fined $15,000 for
price fixing. Historians credit Evans with refocusing the Klan on political activities and recruiting outside the
Southern United States but they note that the political influence and membership gained were transitory. (
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There are 70 Fellows of the
British Film Institute (BFI), a charitable organisation established in 1933. It has awarded fellowships to individuals in "recognition of their outstanding contribution to film or television culture" and is considered the highest accolade presented by the Institute: British actor
John Hurt said the award was "the highest honour possible". The first awards were made in 1983, the same year as BFI National Archive's Silver Jubilee and the BFI's fiftieth anniversary. The inaugural ceremony honoured six recipients of the Fellowship: French film director
Marcel Carné, British film directors
David Lean,
Michael Powell, Hungarian screenwriter
Emeric Pressburger, Indian film-maker
Satyajit Ray and American director and actor
Orson Welles. The most recent Fellowships were bestowed in 2012 on British actress
Helena Bonham Carter(pictured) and American director
Tim Burton. (Full list...)
A
salt print, dated
c. 1844, of three men,
James Ballantine, George Bell and
David Octavius Hill, drinking Edinburgh ale. A contemporary source described the brew as "a potent fluid, which almost glued the lips of the drinker together, and of which few, therefore, could dispatch more than a bottle."
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